Preview - Stygian: Outer Gods: Preview: This game drives me crazy! Cool!

Unfortunately, the predecessor was also so heavy, sluggish and limited by his low budget that it never got beyond the status as an insider tip. So good that stygian: Outer Gods has practically nothing in common with the first part - apart from the low budget.

Instead, stygian: Outer Gods is a classic horror action adventure with bonds from role-playing games and first-person shooters. As an advantage, no prior knowledge is also necessary in order to enjoy the story. Nevertheless, connoisseurs get their money's worth because the events from Outer Gods put some events from Reign of the Old Ones in a new light.

However, the second creation of the game is not here. Stygian: Outer Gods is currently in the early access phase, which for a linear single player game with a focus on story is quite unusual. The first 7-8 hours can already be played and even wait with a pretty cool (preliminary) end. So it is always enough to get a first impression.

Ex-Soldat Jack has been fighting with violent nightmares for many years, in which he is traveling to foreign worlds and being tortured by supernatural or extraterrestrial terms (practically interchangeable terms at Lovecraft). However, these dreams have recently become manifest when Jack is awake and gives him cruel visions full of blood and horror.

However, almost as stressful is that a former good friend registered her visit that Jack has not seen in years. It seems that friendship had not ended completely conflict -free at the time. However, joyful reunion is only on the edge of Victoria's interest.

The plans for a trip to the fishing village of Kingsport, because there seem to be doing unusual things that she would like to examine as an expert for the paranormal. However, since she has not found anyone who would be crazy enough to go to Kingsport with her, and Jack is still guilty to her, he should now come as a companion (and if we are honest as a lively protective shield).

Apart from that, Jack also moves a personal motivation to face the shadow about Kingsport. Allegedly, his father is said to have been spotted there, which actually seems impossible at his recent death. And so the sea flushes us only a small shipwreck (what else?) Later at the port of Kingsport. But where has Victoria left? And why are so many corpses lying around here?

If you pinch your eyes tightly while playing, then you could almost think you would have accidentallyinserted. Not only graphically reminds stygian of the big brother in the (horror) spirit, but also when it comes to building the game. You (so far) do not collect any children's parts in mason jars, but the central point, to which you keep returning, is a mysterious, snowy hind forest village village, in which all residents are insane or dead and want to do your leather. Just (previously) without a werewolves.

Furthermore, it was probablyWearing for Stygian's look and feeling. In both titles, a single military veteran combines a city, the residents of which stands the water (literally) up to the neck. He is plagued by terrible visions and gradually reveals dark secrets. In addition, there is something with old gods and madness and so because they are still Lovecraft games. (More on this in our special on the subject)

Between you and the answers to your questions there are a lot of tough opponents, puzzles, sneak inlays, bouncy passages and more sea water than you can drink (and above all). There are additional crafting resources or new weapons for optional puzzles. Here, however, there seems to be a little bit of a lack of balancing. Of course, I diligently devoted myself to every bonus task, but I couldn't do everything away so quickly.

On the way to the final, not only a massive shotgun stuck under my arm, more ammunition rattled in the backpack than I could drink or shoot. However, my storage box was still full of small stuff to the edge and on the floor in front of it were countless gears, bottles, scraps of fabric, gemstones and wooden planks. What should I do with 15 handmade Dietriches?

“Cracking the locks” would of course be an obvious answer, where the Dietriche can even break in the event of a failure. But “unfortunately” I was just too good to overcome doors. I had chilled in there! The ability system is manageable at first. At the beginning you determine in which the three skills crack locks, conversation and occults you want to be particularly talented and where your weaknesses are. This opens up new discussion options, interactions or chests on the way, which in turn contain more materials.

However, it only gets really exciting when the cards come into play (just like the poker). You unlock particularly powerful properties via golden and silver tarot cards. You get a golden one from it right at the beginning, you either have to find everyone else or earn through ancillary tasks. The silver cards usually offer smaller bonuses, such as a higher value in the skills or more resistance to fire, ice cream and physical damage.

However, the gold cards change the game fundamentally. For example, there would be a gift to speak to the dead. There is a lot of them and many of them are also urgently looking for someone to whom you can hew up an ear. Some even need your help to finally find peace. This opens up a completely new world of additional quests. Unfortunately, they do not offer direct rewards, but seem to be satisfied (according to the notification) an unknown entity that probably evaluates our moral decisions.

So far, it has not yet been clear in the story who that is or what effects your decisions. But if you give you a soul the eternal calm, you have the comfortably warm feeling of having done something good. Other golden cards take your steps completely noiseless, unlock the use of mighty artifacts or let you lift heavier objects. The latter is actually extremely useful and usually brings even more materials. But who wants to drag heavy barrels if they can instead take care of conversation with the deceased?

Unfortunately, very few corpses seem to have paid attention to school and therefore have no knowledge of foreign language. At least that would explain why stygian is currently exclusively with English speech output and subtitles. Here, however, the developers were already improving and at the latest at the latest they want to train all NPCs and write the corresponding subtitles. It should be extremely helpful whether the partially old -fashioned vocabulary of the characters.

Speak a clear language (in contrast to the NPCs) the comments on Steam. Technical problems are reported here that explain the game completely unplayable. Bugs, crashes and massive streakers seem to be the order of the day. However, I didn't have a single dropout or error during my about 8 hours of play. And despite the QHD and all graphics settings on a stop. Apparently I probably had a strand of luck.

For me personally, only the checkpoint system provided me. There are none. Saving is only allowed manually at a few points and they are often extremely far apart. Since the level of difficulty of the struggles is often somewhere between "only feasible" and "Forget it just!" Lies, it is not uncommon for an opponent to get you out of the mountain pines with a start -up and thereby loses the progress of the past hour.

This also likes to happen several times in a row in particularly difficult places. As a result, at some point I was no longer sure whether I already collected certain things on this attempt or whether that was in one of the last five attempts in which I came by.

I even believe that this fun brake has already noticed the developers. The only storage point in the game that is not in a safe room with a warehouse box is in the middle of the wilderness right in front of the stupidest and most unfair point in the entire game, which you will definitely play several times. That can't be a coincidence.

Perhaps this questionable storage point design is also wanted and a brilliant move by the developers is to slowly drive their players crazy in the spirit of the old gods. In that case: Chapeau!